


The Muggle Next Door

by shinealightrose



Category: EXO
Genre: Awkwardness, HPAU, M/M, Muggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 20:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8028226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinealightrose/pseuds/shinealightrose
Summary: Joonmyun is a reclusive wizard in a muggle neighborhood, with a hot muggle neighbor he just maybe wants to marry. Now if only they can talk and get to know one another first without the Ministry of Magic coming down on their doorsteps.





	The Muggle Next Door

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Exolliarmus 2016](http://hp-exolliarmus.livejournal.com/)

Some wizards choose to live among their own kind. They gather in small villages, hamlets, city centers where a small majority of the population uses magic. Some choose to live in the countryside where the risk of discovery is lessened greatly. Where it doesn’t matter if the children play quidditch, or the house glows green at night, or where loud explosions and the occasional wacky spell gone awry will be ever be noticed by their muggle neighbors.  
  
But Joonmyun isn’t one of these wizards. He has no children, no affinity for potions, doesn’t practice rogue charmwork and doesn’t possess any pet more dangerous than a tortoiseshell cat and a lone horny owl which, according to his neighbors, lives most peculiarly in the large tree in Joonmyun’s backyard.  
  
Only the interior of Joonmyun’s home, if he were to ever invite guests inside, betrays the fact that Joonmyun is a wizard. A little dull, a little boring, a little… mundane, but a wizard nonetheless.  
  
“Still trying out that knitting spell I leant you last time?” Jongdae, sipping his lukewarm tea by the fireplace he came in on, smiles.  
  
Joonmyun stares wryly at the dust and ashes now settled beneath Jongdae’s feet. He hasn’t cleaned the grate in… oh, since the last time Jongdae showed up unannounced several months ago.  
  
They’re great friends. As great a friend as Joonmyun keeps anyway, which these days isn’t many. Most of his old Hogwarts buddies are busy keeping up with hectic, stressful careers or families, and they have very little time for boring, old Joonmyun who sits around writing and translating books on Arithmancy into twenty different languages for magical schools around the world. It’s a job most easily done at home. No need to travel into the city except once a month to sit down with the publishers to verify Joonmyun’s complicated charts and diagrams on the magical properties of prime numbers receive the proper alignments.  
  
“I… the spell is a little wonky, still…”  
  
Jongdae and Joonmyun both stare at the knitting needles, which in the last few minutes (or perhaps days) have spun multiple tangles of yarn for what should resemble a muffler.  
  
“I should give it to the cat as a toy.”  
  
Jongdae lips press into a sneer, the kind Joonmyun used to believe Jongdae was mocking him with, but now knows it’s just his way of being amused.  
  
“You never were good with anything not involving numbers, Joonmyun. Are you eating well? You know how to cook, right? Should I look around to find you a wife? Or husband? No one has your fancy these days? Joonmyun, look at you. You dress like a sixty year old wizard from the 15th century. Surely there’s somebody in this world you’d want to make yourself presentable for?”  
  
Almost unconsciously—almost, because Joonmyun knows he can’t ever stop himself when people speak to him about a potential lifetime partner—he turns his head in the direction of his dining room windows.  
  
And of course, Jongdae’s head turns with him.  
  
Joonmyun sighs, a little wistfully. Jongdae stares, then looks at his face, then hums in sudden, suppressed understanding.  
  
“Oh, Joonmyun. Oh, Joonmyun, you blessed soul. Not your neighbor, surely not _still your neighbor_ after all this time?”  
  
Joonmyun’s face falls and he starts to blubber helplessly. “I can’t help it! I just… he… and…”  
  
“He’s a muggle, Joonmyun. There are laws about these things. A very important law, in fact. It’s called the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy and—”  
  
“Yes, but there are allowances for…” His voice trails off, and his gaze streaks right back to the window, through which the facade of his neighbor’s house, and part of his front porch, and the entire driveway and side garden running between their houses, is most painfully visible. “... for spouses.”  
  
“Only under duress, and only if you’re willing to tell him. What if he freaks out? What if he denies you? What do you do then? Are you going to confund him into not remembering and then live beside the man that way until the day you both die? Have you even told him you like him? _Do you even talk?!”_  
  
“S-sometimes, we talk about our gardens…”  
  
Jongdae’s head drops and his eyebrows shoot up, his jaw open like he wants to argue, but instead—and Joonmyun recognizes this expression too—he very calmly closes his mouth and takes on the role of a wise uncle dealing with a particularly confused child.  
  
“Joonmyun, my precious, precious friend… at least, get yourself invited over for tea first and see if he can make a better pot than you.” He smiles, mercifully signaling the end of this interrogation, and Joonmyun is relieved.  
  
“How’s your work these days, Jongdae?” he asks, immediately taking advantage of the reprieve.  
  
“Oh, you know me. Spells always need inventing.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Several hours later, Joonmyun’s knitting is more of a mess, the tea cups from Jongdae’s visit are piled up next to the sink. Joonmyun is waiting for prime time, the early evening when his neighbor gets home, and he can spy on him through the kitchen windows while doing the dishes.  
  
The clock sinks down, little cooing noises from a number of magical creatures every hour on the dot. Finally, the sound of a car pulling up in the neighboring driveway causes Joonmyun to sit up from his work desk and make his way to the kitchen. He sets a dishwashing spell on the sink and stands there, right on time, to wave at his neighbor through the window when the man gets out of his car.  
  
There, _there’s_ that smile he’s waited all day to see. Joonmyun blushes from his temples down to his toes, and part of his spell, reacting to his mood, glitches. A large splash of soapy water crashes over the edge of the countertop. Joonmyun screams, a sound that can clearly be overheard through the thin window panes, as water runs down the front of his shirt and pants. His neighbor, pausing mid return wave, falters and looks mildly concerned. When Joonmyun looks back up, it’s to smile even more awkwardly and pretend that he’s fine.  
  
His neighbor, waving awkwardly back, closes the car door, and walks into his house.  
  
All day, _all day_ waiting for that moment, and there goes Joonmyun screwing it up again.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Kris Wu, that’s his neighbor, came here five years ago from China, although he’s only lived next door to Joonmyun for two years. According to the local neighborhood gossip channels, the ones Joonmyun picks up every now and then when he deigns to visit the neighborhood park for the bi-monthly weekend home owners’ barbecue and football match, he’s a college professor at the nearby university. That immediately makes him, in Joonmyun’s eye, sexy. On top of that he’s so very tall and lean and he dyes his hair blond. He can’t be older than thirty-five, according to Joonmyun’s discerning eye, and that makes him the perfect, most perfect specimen in which to instill Joonmyun’s fantasies. There’s also a rumor he might be gay. But single, definitely single. Joonmyun knows this because, well… unless Kris is better than a wizard at keeping secrets, not a single person comes over to his house after dark. Not that Joonmyun’s been spying or anything. Only a little bit. It’s but a coincidence of how their homes are aligned.  
  
Joonmyun coughs and stumbles out to his mailbox early the next morning. There’s dew on his front lawn, his cat is happily exploring for birds after a night spent inside. Kris is also coming out of his house to fetch the morning paper. They wave to each other and smile, Joonmyun’s heart beating a little faster than it should.  
  
He doesn’t subscribe to any regular newspapers, but he does have a muggle mailbox. He keeps it not for the general trash mail that inevitably piles up, but because it gives him an excuse to visit the great outdoors… at the same time as Kris.  
  
This morning the college professor is dressed smartly in dark gray slacks and a teal button-down and a blazer. He looks stunning, which is in sharp contrast to Joonmyun’s shapeless brown trousers and checkered blue and white top. At least he combed his hair.  
  
“Morning, neighbor!” Kris calls cheerfully. Then he laughs, as if the stereotypical phrase is more than he can handle.  
  
Joonmyun grins broadly. In the next second, he winces, because… he isn’t being too obvious, right?  
  
“Lovely day, yes?” He turns and stares at the sun. Or rather, he stares at where the sun should be. It’s overcast and there’s a smell of rain hanging over the air.  
  
“If you like this weather, then yes,” Kris replies with an amused, amiable expression.  
  
“Oh. I do, yes.”  
  
Lame, Joonmyun. How lame is this. He can’t even hold a conversation without talking about the weather, and it’s not even pretty weather at that!  
  
“Well, see you around,” says Kris.  
  
He gives Joonmyun one last smile and then returns to his front porch. Another opportunity wasted. Joonmyun slinks back inside, forgetting to bring in the cat and sulks for the rest of his day over his book projects.  
  
  
  
  
  
It’s the next day around mid-morning when Joonmyun, interrupted in yet another boring translation, hears a knock at the door. The front door. Nobody ever knocks on the front door except solicitors trying to landscape his already impeccable lawn or kids selling fundraiser chocolate bars. And right now, Joonmyun already has a lifetime supply of chocolate frogs, his little army of gnomes covertly keep his grass in shape, and it’s way too early for both kinds of visitors anyways.  
  
He peaks out the window overlooking the front porch and jumps in place. Kris, his neighbor, is standing in front of the window, drenched by the rain and also holding Joonmyun’s cat. He gives a little wave and Joonmyun immediately shuts the curtain closed. Before opening the door, he pulls his wand from his coat pocket and swipes it cleanly over the width of the house, hoping without a doubt that his little cease magic spell will silence any and all ongoing tricks and magickery.  
  
“H-hello?? Good morning!” he says with an anxious smile.  
  
Kris dips his head in greeting. His smile is crooked, water drips from every article of clothing. His hair is matted and still damnably attractive. He holds up the cat, Joonmyun forced to look at his poor animal instead of the man before him.  
  
“I… found her outside. Must have been left out all night during the storm.”  
  
The cat gives a pathetic meow. Joonmyun holds his arms out to take in the creature, apologizing nonstop.  
  
“Oh, oh, I’m so sorry. It’s my fault I forgot to make sure she was inside. You’re… soaked, I’m so so sorry. Is there anything I can do- wait. Would you like a cup of tea, wait no-”  
  
He can’t invite a muggle inside his home!  
  
“Look, I’d dearly like to invite you in, but I’m in the middle of a very important…” definition defining the differences between the Agrippan and Chaldean methods of arithmancy in conjunction with the modern Granger approach, with specifics on why the magical number 7 was not used in table methodology until the early 21st century but… Joonmyun breathes through his nose, “a very important book passage. Uhm, how would you feel about tea… later, wait, but not here.”  
  
“Would you like to come over for dinner this evening?” Kris interrupts.  
  
Joonmyun’s mouth opens. Then shuts. Then opens again. “Uhhhh….”  
  
“Five o’clock alright with you?”  
  
Again Joonmyun stutters. “Uhhm.”  
  
“How about 5:30?”  
  
The cat in Joonmyun’s arms begins to fidget, moisture from its fur seeping into Joonmyun’s shirt. “5:30 sounds amazing.”  
  
“Good.” Kris smiles again. The gleam in his eyes nearly knocks Joonmyun right off his feet. “I’ll see you then.” He starts to walk off.  
  
Joonmyun hasn’t bothered to shut the door yet, too amazed both that he managed to score a dinner date and is being blessed by the sight of a very wet, water-logged pair of pants walking away with a very shapely rear end. Then Kris turns and catches Joonmyun mid-ogling.  
  
“You know, strange thought I know but… I could have sworn I saw your cat yesterday in the tree in your backyard talking to… again, I know this sounds really strange but… she was meowing at that… owl.”  
  
Joonmyun immediately laughs, belying his panic. “What? Oh, how funny. I’m sure she was offended it was sitting in her tree. Animals. They can be quite irrational creatures, no?”  
  
Kris’ smile is a little more puzzled than before, but he sighs and waves goodbye. Joonmyun shuts the door right away this time, before Kris can ask anymore ~~stupid~~ valid questions.  
  
“You little vixen, you,” he scolds the cat a minute later, tucked in between a warm fluffy towel. “I told you not to go confusing the neighbors again. Can’t you visit your buddy when nobody is looking, huh? Huh?”  
  
The cat doesn’t answer. She never does. Instead she purrs, and Joonmyun feels a wave of affection for the animal, even if she does get him sometimes into trouble.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The storm regains in intensity before Joonmyun can get dressed for dinner. He arrives on Kris’ front porch wearing his biggest, oldest rain jacket, hoodie tied neatly under his chin and a ratty umbrella. His better umbrella, the one bewitched to let not a drop of rain touch his person, he left at home. It would be suspicious if he showed up to dinner looking as dry as a desert.  
  
“Evening!” he chirps awkwardly when Kris opens the door. It’s the first, and probably last, sensible thing he says the whole night.  
  
Kris’ home is clean and tidy, quite unlike Joonmyun’s. And to top it off, it has all the modern lived-in comfort of a bachelor pad, without the weird odds and ends Joonmyun has often associated with other witches’ and wizards’ homes. It’s rare to see the inside of a muggle home, even though he lives among them.  
  
“I made some simple pasta, I hope you don’t mind.” Kris is all smiles when he shows Joonmyun through the kitchen into the dining room. He has a nice view of the backyard. _Their_ backyards, actually. Suddenly, Joonmyun worries he might have to relocate Baekhyun the owl to another side of the house, because what if Kris has noticed his weird flight patterns?  
  
“P-pasta sounds delicious,” he says, covertly thinking how it wasn’t creepy spying on Kris’ house until he realizes, it does sound creepy that Kris might be spying on him.  
  
A streak of lightning flashes outside, the entire yard crackling with white light for a second. Joonmyun braces himself from the accompanying thunder. He knows it’s just nature at work, but Joonmyun was a little boy during the last Wizarding War, and some fears you never truly overcome. Not all the way.  
  
“Are you alright?” Kris asks him, worry in his eyes.  
  
“Oh, oh. Quite alright, thank you. Just, storms. You know how it is.” He hiccups and sits down.  
  
Kris seats himself opposite, a steaming covered dish between them. The place settings are already laid out. There are flowers on one end of the table, tapered candles on either side of the dish. It looks, strangely and most definitely… romantic.  
  
“Lovely candles.” Joonmyun gulps.  
  
Kris gives him a bashful look. Two seconds later he starts on a long-winded explanation about how the power often goes out during storms. His cheeks are tinged with pink. If Joonmyun wasn’t so terrified—not about the storm, not really, but the fact here he is sitting down to eat with the object of his secret two-year crush—he might be able to enjoy the meal a little better. It’s already the best thing that’s happened to him in a decade.  
  
Small talk is awkward. Really awkward. Any normal wizard-to-wizard conversation might go like this: ‘How has your day been? Oh, work was good? What do you do? I’m in _blank_ line of sorcery.’  
  
Instead: ‘Oh, it’s been a boring day. You work at the college, that’s great? What do you teach? Math! How cool! Me too! Oh, I mean. It’s… it’s not quite the same field as yours probably. Uhm, I translate things more… hypothetical? Really, it’s dull work. You wouldn’t find it interesting. No, truly.’  
  
Joonmyun talks himself in circles until he’s nearly blue in the face. He hopes he gives off at least a kind of charming outlook. The alternative is to sound like a doddering old fool. Maybe this dinner date was a bad idea. Kris is gorgeous, the finest specimen of a man Joonmyun can find but… it’s just too difficult, liking a muggle. No future in it. Nothing but the promise of endless, sad daydreams-  
  
“I hope I’m not making you feel awkward,” Kris interrupts his gloomy fantasies.  
  
“Huh? Ohh, oh no no no.” It feels like a punch to his gut. If Joonmyun thought he felt dejected already, it’s nothing compared to the frown on Kris’ face right about now.  
  
“I just… never had a chance to talk to you much before and, it seemed like we could be… friends.”  
  
Another rumble of thunder makes Joonmyun jump in his chair.  
  
“ _Friends?_ ” Joonmyun echoes. His heart is still jittering from the storm, but… does Kris look upset?! Merlin’s pants, but this really was a date and now Joonmyun has gone and made everything a mess.  
  
“Uhhh,” says Joonmyun while three things happen at once. First, he registers Kris’ downcast face. Second, he sees another streak of lightning and in that flash… something flying towards them through the backyard. The third thing, which anyone would expect to be the accompanying thunder boom, is not thunder at all. Something collides with the window with a loud SMACK! The entire wall rattles while Joonmyun shrieks, something squawks, and only then does the thunder roll over the house like a mountain breaking apart. Even Kris jumps out of his seat, all awkward small talk and failed date conversations aside.  
  
“What was that!”  
  
Joonmyun scampers out of his chair, fails, and lands on the ground instead. His heart rate is skyrocketing. He can swear those were feathers fluttering on the window sill and, oh no… his owl!  
  
“Baekhyun!?” He brushes aside Kris’ arm which is there to help him up. Instead, he pulls himself to his feet and rushes to the windowed backdoor. The storm is still crashing around them, and a heavy gust of wind and rain assaults him when he gets the door open. “Baekhyun!”  
  
His tiny, horned owl is squawking loudly enough to overpower the storm, on its side next to Joonmyun’s feet, but it’s alive and still proudly carrying Joonmyun’s mail. He realizes Kris is behind him. He realizes a muggle is about to see him pick up an owl carrying a letter but… Joonmyun can worry about that later. He grabs the small creature in his arms and carries him back inside. Kris is already there to slam the door shut. They’re both fairly wet now. The floor next to the door is soaked.  
  
“Towel?” Joonmyun cries, already checking Baekhyun’s little feet and wings for any breaks or fractures. The owl hoots softly, faint but cheerful. Little brat, he always was something of a drama queen.  
  
Kris throws him a kitchen towel, and Joonmyun barely registers his shocked expression. He’s grateful Kris hasn’t said anything yet or started asking questions.  
  
One of Baekhyun’s wings is missing some feathers. It’s also flopping at an odd angle. Joonmyun unties the letter from its leg, tosses it aside, and lays the owl down in the middle of the towel. After he’s soaked up as much rain as he can, Baekhyun still hooting calmly with every soft stroke of the towel, Joonmyun pulls out his wand.  
  
“What…?” Of course Kris takes this moment to say something.  
  
“Hang on, can you just… stand back for a moment,” says Joonmyun. He’s much too focused right now to deal with a muggle. And besides, Baekhyun’s wing is likely broken and giving him pain. He holds his wand—cypress, 10 inches, unicorn hair, sturdy for no-nonsense spellwork—at the base of the fracture. Under his breath he chants, “Ferula,” to bandage and splint the breakage. Small sparks shoot out from the end of his wand to the owl’s wing. Kris’ eyes light up. Baekhyun’s beady eyes roll back in his head, but then he coos in relief and Joonmyun finally smiles. He’s totally forgetting there are consequences to this activity. He just used magic in front of a muggle, and that’s going to bring up serious questions as well as… well, he won’t think about the Ministry just yet.  
  
“I don’t understand…” Kris wheezes. Joonmyun is still holding his wand. He’s forgotten entirely that there was a letter attached to Baekhyun’s claw. And, it’s now in Kris’ hand.  
  
His neighbor is staring it. Whether it fell apart from the rain or Kris opened it himself, inside is the curly handwriting Joonmyun recognizes as Jongdae’s. Beyond that, a snippet of a magazine clipping from the monthly International Arithmancy publication falls out and lands on the floor. Joonmyun gasps. That’s his face on the parchment, covering half the page, his smiling, moving, slightly bored-looking face and he’s holding up a stack of books. The cover title reads, “Kim Joonmyun, the new face of international numerology,” and Joonmyun knows without having to read the article that it’s a news story about the popularity of his translations among half the literate wizarding world, the ones who care about this kind of thing anyway.  
  
The parchment falls from Kris’ hands. Joonmyun sees another snippet, citing him as “the leading, handsomest scholar of ancient wizarding languages”. An over-exaggeration, as he’d told that sly reporter, but there’s no killing the buzz of nerdy arithmancers all over the world when they think they have their hands on something juicy. Teach Joonmyun to invite that nosey Oh Sehun back into his house again. Because the effect it’s having on Kris right now is not exactly how Joonmyun wanted this to be. He’s thought about it, sure. Him and Kris, sitting down to tea a few months to a few years from now, all lovey-dovey because they’ve been flirting and low-key dating forever. Joonmyun tells him to stay calm, that he has a secret to share. Then, casually, without the effects of magic thus far, he’ll tell him, “Kris, I’m a wizard.”  
  
This dream as opposed to right now. “You’re… you’re… a… wizard? What is this? I don’t… Joonmyun, what’s going on…?”  
  
Kris’ voice is soft, not shouting. So, that’s good. On the other hand, he’s still as a statue and visibly panicking underneath.  
  
Jongdae’s voice comes back to haunt Joonmyun. _What if he freaks out? What if he denies you? What do you do then? Are you going to confund him into not remembering and then live beside the man that way until the day you both die?_  
  
Joonmyun shifts his wand away from the bird. Kris’ eyes track his every movement. They dart from the magical instrument in his hand to Joonmyun’s moving face in the article, the words that seem to swirl on the page, then back at the owl.  
  
“Y-you have an owl…”  
  
“His name is Baekhyun,” Joonmyun says, like that’s important.  
  
“You have a pet owl.”  
  
Joonmyun grimaces. “He’s not exactly a pet… More like a mail-carrier?”  
  
Baekhyun hoots in agreement. The horny owl is already shuffling back onto its feet and looking at the door. No way is Joonmyun letting it fly again tonight though. He pulls up the damp towel and wraps it around the disgruntled owl. Kris is still frozen, his eyes as big as Joonmyun has ever seen them.  
  
“What… is a wizard? Okay, but you do magic? And and and… arithmancy?”  
  
“Yes,” Joonmyun admits. “I write arithmancy books.” Since he’s already gotten this far, he goes on. “Yes, I’m a wizard. I was born one. There are lots of witches and wizards in the world. Yes, we’re real. No, we’re not evil. Well, some can be. There was this war about thirty years ago… but, that’s not important. We won. Well, I don’t mean I did. I just mean good wizards won and the muggles didn’t even realize it—sorry, we call you non-magic people muggles, it’s not a bad word, I promise. Uhm… I live in your neighborhood and but I keep quiet, not a lot of wizards do actually, you should be lucky to, uhm… see, this is why I didn’t invite you inside before… There’s a law to keep magic a secret from the muggles but... ” He ends in a rushed inhale, air flooding his lungs and his cheeks going bright. Baekhyun is staring at him like he’s crazy. Kris is definitely looking at him like he’s crazy. Where is the Ministry and can they just hurry up and arrive and lock up Joonmyun before he can embarrass himself anymore?  
  
“You’re… a wizard,” Kris repeats.  
  
Duly, Joonmyun nods, again. “Yes. I’m a wizard.”  
  
“You’re not a myth.”  
  
“Nope. As you can see…”  
  
“But you said it’s supposed to be a secret.”  
  
Joonmyun swallows uncomfortably, and his wand hand quivers like he knows what he should be doing already. “It is, actually.”  
  
He levels the wand at Kris, slowly, unsteadily. Kris eyes it with a wary gaze, but Joonmyun almost can’t see clearly. “I should wipe your memory now…” he says, mournfully.  
  
It’s Kris’ turn to gulp. “Is… that why you did all that stuff in front of me and… told me about yourself? Because you were going to wipe my memory?”  
  
A stray tear escapes Joonmyun’s eye. This is something he never, truly wanted to do. Not at least before he had a chance to tell Kris more. To get to know him. Slowly, he nods his head. Kris’ face falls.  
  
“What happens when you do that? I forget this whole evening happened?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“And what about you? Do I forget you?”  
  
Another tear falls from Joonmyun’s eyes. “You’ll just know me as your neighbor. You won’t think about me much, or at all. Nothing else in your life will change. Just me, and everything about me.”  
  
And if that was all, then Joonmyun could probably deal with it. Keep his memories of Kris, keep on watching him. Eventually, he’ll get over his little crush and move on with his life. Throw himself into more books and more translations and maybe even… move to another neighborhood if he can’t even do that. Kris will forget all about him, and he won’t share Joonmyun’s pain.  
  
“Why are you crying then?” asks Kris gently.  
  
His words send another few droplets leaking out of Joonmyun’s eyes. He wipes them away frantically with the hand not holding his wand.  
  
“You don’t want to wipe my memories, do you?” Kris prods again. “Why?”  
  
It takes several moments for Joonmyun to answer. And why shouldn’t he? Kris won’t remember this at all. It’ll be the last words he hears before Joonmyun says the spell. Maybe, saying them too will give Joonmyun the catharsis he needs to get over it.  
  
“Because I like you. I wanted to get to know you. I wanted you to know, someday, who I really was.”  
  
Strangely, the worst part of the storm seems to have passed. There’s no more thunder or lightning, and the wind isn’t quite as strong against the window panes, just a heavy downpour of rain and if that isn’t poetic justice, then Joonmyun doesn’t know anything about the world.  
  
Kris holds his gaze steady, eyes mournful, regretful. What thoughts might be rushing through his mind, Joonmyun cannot tell.  
  
Until, “I liked you too.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
It’s two days later when Joonmyun, still filled with regrets over everything that night, looks out his front room window and sees the team of wizards lining up in front of Kris’ house. His heart sinks. “No…” he echoes through the house. “No, please… no…”  
  
Why are they coming for Kris? Shouldn’t they have interrogated Joonmyun first? He tosses his wand in his back pocket, throws open the front door and sprints across the lawn. The wizards, three wizards and one witch, turn and face him, but it’s already too late.  
  
One knocks on the door and a few seconds later, Kris opens it.  
  
Joonmyun hasn’t seen him since that night. He can barely even look outside his kitchen window, for fear of catching the man walking in his yard, or to and from his car. That hasn’t stopped Joonmyun from thinking about him though. Every waking moment, he’s thinking about him. Wondering how he’s doing, what he’s doing. If he’s wondering anything about his weird neighbor next door or if…  
  
But no, they can’t do this to him now.  
  
“Please! Stop!” he calls to the wizards. Joonmyun doesn’t recognize any but one. Kim Minseok, one of the foremost Obliviators with the Ministry, or so Joonmyun has heard in recent years. They went to school together, were in the same house, one year removed. They’re as close any students could be with a whole year’s age gap between, but Joonmyun did think Minseok was rather fond of him. Perhaps… this is the only chance Joonmyun’s ever going to get.  
  
He rushes past them and puts himself between the wizards and Kris. For his size, Joonmyun doesn’t block much but it definitely makes the wizards halt. None of them have out their wands yet.  
  
“Joonmyun?” Minseok asks with uncharacteristic pause.  
  
The witch beside him has no such reluctance. “You are Kim Joonmyun?” Joonmyun nods. “Then you are aware that in front of your neighbor, a certain Mr Kris Wu, that magic has been used? Are you Kris Wu?” She looks above Joonmyun’s shoulder. Kris nods, speechless at the sight of the wizards.  
  
A second wizard takes over. “Then by the decree of the local chapter in charge of governance of the International Statute of Secrecy, it is our order to seek forceful remonstrance of the event so accused, and charge Mr Kim with performing magic before-”  
  
“Please…” Joonmyun suddenly begs. “This is a misunderstand. Kris and I…” He hesitates for only a second, seeking the first citation of exception he knows exists, “we are are together. Kris and I are going to be married soon. Please, please don’t take his memories, I beg of you. I will be solely responsible for the things he knows. I will… please… Minseok, just, trust me on this?”  
  
Joonmyun rubs his hands together and pleads silently with his old friend, ignoring the others who are less likely to rule this in his favor, but even with his announcement, they’ll still seek to confirm it.  
  
Joonmyun feels a hand on his shoulder, shaking, large. Kris takes a one step forward, but doesn’t pass beyond where Joonmyun is standing.  
  
Minseok is still hesitating, but there’s a firm press of his lips while he thinks it over. The witch then speaks. “Is this true? Kris Wu, please confirm what the wiz- what this man has said. Are you two to be married? And if so, can you swear that any knowledge of the magical world will never cross your lips in the presence of any other muggle, neither family nor friends, but that you will always sway to the jurisdiction of the Ministry in relation to muggle affairs and-”  
  
“Yes.” Kris’ lumbering voice sends a shiver through Joonmyun’s body. The hand on his shoulder grows heavier, but at the same time, softer. “Yes, it is true. We are going to get married, and I will never speak of this to anyone. I can swear to that.”  
  
Minseok unexpectedly smiles. “Then Joonmyun, I congratulate you. I congratulate you both.”  
  
“You’ll be required to register your marriage with the Ministry as soon as possible,” continues the witch, like this is a completely mundane, and now useless affair.  
  
“I understand,” says Joonmyun. He can’t keep the relief in his voice from seeping out.  
  
“We wish you well then.”  
  
They turn and begin walking away. Joonmyun follows them with his eyes for a short while, but then Kris’ presence looms larger than any Ministry presence. When the hand on his shoulder suddenly leaves, Joonmyun turns to the other man, an apology already on the tip of his tongue.  
  
“I’m…”  
  
“Why did you do that?” Kris interrupts.  
  
“Do what? Say we were going to be married-”  
  
“Fight for me,” Kris interrupts again, speaking at the same time.  
  
Joonmyun blushes. Standing beside Kris, he feels very small. And also out of place since he did just put forth a marriage proposal without discussing it with Kris first. And, that marriage being registered with the Ministry—to whom Joonmyun cannot lie—is the only thing standing between Kris as he is now, and Kris becoming someone else entirely, to say nothing of Joonmyun’s potential happiness. “Well, I… didn’t… you know..”  
  
He scratches his head and tries to look away.  
  
“Is it true?” Kris asks instead.  
  
“What?”  
  
“That you want to get married?”  
  
And oh, this is so premature a conversation for them to have, except that in the preceding months and especially recently, Joonmyun has already thought about everything and even going by the little he knew about Kris before, “Well, I mean… I know we told the Ministry wizards that but… uhmm.” He laughs to hide his embarrassment and looks away.  
  
“So, we could… try going on some more dates first?” asks Kris.  
  
Joonmyun gulps and nods. “We could, y-yeah… I would, like that. Although, about that other thing.”  
  
“What other thing? You mean that you’re a wizard?” Kris asks quietly, taking another step forward to stand in front of Joonmyun.  
  
Joonmyun shakes his head yes. “Y-yeah, that thing. It… it doesn’t bother you?”  
  
“I think it could take some time to get used to, but…” Kris’ expression gives hope to every nightmare Joonmyun has ever had.  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
He almost doesn’t realize that Kris is pulling his chin gently upwards and leaning closer to his mouth. One look in those deep, beautiful eyes has Joonmyun’s head starting to spin. Then his eyes dart lower and see Kris’ tongue smoothing out his upper lip in preparation for something Joonmyun never, beyond his wildest dreams, thought would be happening, ever.  
  
The kiss is chaste, but magical. Is there any other way to describe it? It doesn’t last for more than a few seconds, but in those moments, Joonmyun’s breath is stolen away. He gasps, peering up. Kris is smiling broadly, sweetly.  
  
“I think I’m going to like getting to know you.”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Obli-” Joonmyun can’t make his tongue form the incantation. More tears are falling, there’s a tear now trailing down Kris’ cheek. “Obli- Ob… I can’t… Obli-” His wand shakes, his fingers are trembling so much.  
  
“Please,” Kris begs. “Please don’t…”  
  
“Obli-” The wand slips completely out of his fingers as Joonmyun cries. “I can’t!” Standing up, he grabs Baekhyun and wraps him tighter in the towel. Leaving even his wand, he turns to the back door and flies out into the night, dashing across the yard to his house, to safety, to cry.  
  
“Joonmyun! Joonmyun!” Kris cries loudly through the rain.  
  
Baekhyun hoots softly from in his embrace.  
  
The following morning, the storm is gone. Joonmyun finds his wand, wrapped in plastic inside a shoebox on his front porch step. Kris, that man, may yet be the best thing he’s ever found in life, and Joonmyun doesn’t know if he can live without him.  
  



End file.
